Archive for November, 2003
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29 November 2003
Bogojavlenie, or “Epiphany” in English, commemorates the baptism of Jesus. It is celebrated throughout the Orthodox world, and usually involves a procession from the church to the nearest body of water. After blessing the water, the priest throws the cross into the icy depths. Then the mad rush begins, as stripped-down bathers take the [...]
28 November 2003
A classic analysis of Romanian defense from guest author Dr. Sam Vaknin.
Romanian President, Ion Iliescu, contests his homeland’s geography. On Monday, at a joint press conference with Bulgaria’s President Parvanov, he cast both countries as “central-south European” rather than the derogatory “Balkan”. Both polities are well on their way to join [...]
27 November 2003
Athens- enduring testament to Greece and its classical legacy- is an enticing, exotic European city where past and present coexist in serene yet spirited harmony.
According to myth, the city was named after Athena, Olympian goddess of wisdom, when she endowed it with that ultimate symbol of Greece- the olive tree. Ever since, Athens has been [...]
26 November 2003
A strangely captivating land of mountains and lakes, Macedonia slips beneath the radar of most businessmen and expats. This is a shame, because the little country has a lot to offer for the persistent and committed investor. While it does have problems commonly found in all post-Socialistic Balkan states, the lack [...]
25 November 2003
If you are heading out to the fractious, mixed-up region of the Balkans (that area of southern Europe comprising Albania, Northern Greece, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania, and European Turkey), it would behoove you to know a little bit about the surprisingly varied and creative lengths that the various nationalities go [...]
24 November 2003
The recent week of terrorist attacks in Istanbul have spread confusion and panic in Turkey’s spiritual capital. Some fear that the military may crack down if the government cannot stop future outbursts of violence. Others believe that (as in America) a voluntary surrender of civil liberties may be the necessary price of ensuring safety. And [...]
21 November 2003
Guest author Dr. Sam Vaknin debunks commonly-held myths about Yugoslavia in this article from April 2000.
I have spent the last decade reading books and articles written about Yugoslavia by luminaries from East and West alike. I wonder if there ever was a subject so enshrouded by myths and inexactitudes, platitudes [...]
19 November 2003
By Phillip Corwin
(Duke University Press, 1999)
Reviewed by Nebojsa Malic
Philip Corwin is not a professional apologist, advocacy journalist, propagandist or self-aggrandizing Imperial shill, the kind one would expect writing a book about Bosnia. Corwin, an American in UN service, was the head of UNPROFOR Civil Affairs in Sarajevo during those [...]
18 November 2003
As I was helping the stroller-pushing mom carry her two-ton sack of clothes into the laundromat that day, a ludicrous thought struck me: what if this were Turkey? When the thankful woman blurted out her gratitude, I wanted to reply with “good service, good service?” and the expectant, hound-dog eyes of a [...]
16 November 2003
The recent sinking of the Prestige oil tanker came only 2 months after construction began on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which will connect the Caspian and [...]
14 November 2003
Today, a popular movement is growing in the United States, among travelers and others interested in foreign cultures. This now-widespread sentiment states that America’s global hegemony (military, economic and cultural) is misguided, socially unjust and also quite dangerous. Thus a certain overlap between the “ethical traveler” and the environmentalists, anti-globalization [...]
13 November 2003
A classic analysis of FDI flow in the East from guest author Dr. Sam Vaknin.
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Lithuania is projected to have grown by at least 15 percent this year. [...]
12 November 2003
By Paul Magdalino (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
584 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
In this magisterial work Professor Magdalino sets the social, economic, religious and military context for the revival of Byzantine fortunes under Emperor Alexios I Comnenos (1081-1118), who began a family dynasty that ruled Byzantium until the murder of his grandson Manuel’s successor [...]
11 November 2003
At Eminonu, when the dying rays of the Western sun settle over the bridges, and the ferries and tugboats bob, the mercantile past and present of Istanbul stand out. Grizzled rogues from the Caucasus and Kazakhstan tilt the orbit of commerce eastward, while from the bridge amateurs cast their lines for the [...]
10 November 2003
Seven short months into the war, and we’ve already seen everything- the weapons of mass destruction, the star-crossed multicultural marriages, the stage-managed toppling of Saddam’s statue and his symbolic, triumphant return, in the form of guerrillas who claim to be revenging both him and an Islam humiliated- while [...]
9 November 2003
In 1998, when NATO’s war on Yugoslavia was first being organized, secret camps were set up in northern Albania. There, British and American forces [...]
7 November 2003
By Richard Holbrooke
(Random House, 1998)
432 pp.
Reviewed by Nebosja Malic
(NOTE: all page numbers refer to the hardcover edition)
Today’s Bosnia-Herzegovina is not so much a functioning country as a living testimony to the modern America policy of nation-building, and the man who brought it about in the Balkans, one Richard [...]
6 November 2003
Until recently, the Jayson Blair “scandal” seemed certain to be the most uplifting media event of the year. But who could have anticipated that this sublime manifestation of the “Disneyworld Principle” would be upstaged by the textual trickery of an unknown journalist from little Estonia?
It must have been especially hilarious for [...]
5 November 2003
9/11 was a lifesaver for NATO. At the time catastrophe struck, the unraveling fiasco in Kosovo was already bringing increased attention on the alliance’s essential role and value. Having been unconvincingly transformed from an alliance of mutual self-defense into one of humanitarian intervention, NATO might have been put back on life [...]
4 November 2003
On Saturday, after a fanfare of media, peace concerts, and even an anti-weapons march that attracted a few hundred stragglers (some governmental) and succeeded mostly in angering Skopje’s idled motorists, the long awaited weapons collections began. After all the controversies, mockery and doubt surrounding this epochal event, the government is [...]
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